Keeping it fresh: Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Layers Bisquits

A few nights ago Mr. Borscht and I wanted to make these delicious Pillsbury Grands bisquits as a side to go with our dinner, I took the cold tube out ready to have fun with the peeling and popping! If you've ever made bisquits or croissants from these Pillsbury tubes you know what I speak of. I looked at the directions written on the tube, I usually forget to read the directions before I peel and pop the tube open which results in a painful 5 minutes of trying to read from a piece of peeled and curling paper.

"I wish there was a way to only make 2 or 4 of these bisquits" I said to Mr. Borscht "we always have left overs and they don't keep well at all", Mr. Borscht put his hands against his chin, legs crossed and eyes rolling up "Hmmm..." he sounded.

"I wonder if I could just refrigerate the dough?" I said to him

"Let's look it up on line!" He briskly led the way to the computer.

Googling how to keep Pillsbury dough fresh for another day wasn't that hard to find, it seemed we were not the only couple with this dilemma, however no one really seemed to know. There were many suggestion including one very funny one 'tell them to behave' someone said, another said that the Pillsbury bisquits came in tubes of 4 as well- we'll look for them next time but I don't remember ever having seen one.

The two suggestions that seemed would work were: 1. Take the unused dough and store it in a plastic bag or container with a few drop of water to keep it moist, and 2. Take the baked but uneaten bisquits, wrap it in foil and store it in a plastic container in the refrigerator, when ready to be eaten reheat in the foil at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

"They both seem like good ideas" I said to Mr. Borscht with a perplexed face, the wheels in my head were turning rapidly as I tried to figure out which was the best option, cook, store and reheat OR store fresh? The science was bubbling and spluttering in the brain as I tried to logically figure out if storing fresh dough with a few drops of water would keep it moist without compromising the dough in any way, or was it better to risk the dough being slightly drier by simply reheating the left overs the next day?

"Do both and experiment" Mr. Borscht merely said without even a raise in the brow.

It was an absolutely great idea! And so I did.

Here are the results friends out there who equally love as much as I the Pillsbury bisquits, however falter from the sheer force of the quantity that must be consumed or else.

The tubes come with 8 bisquits, I made 6 as instructed, 2 of these 6 bisquits are to be stored and reheated for another day.

After cooling 2 bisquits, I wrapped in foil and then stored them in a plastic container where it would sit in the refrigerator for 2 days.

I had two fresh uncooked dough from the tube, I put these in a plastic bag with a few drops of water, I manually sucked the air out of the bag by zipping the bag leaving about 1-inch of space where I sucked out as much air as I could using my mouth and then zipping it all the way across. This also went into the refrigerator where it would sit for 2 days.

Here they both sit quietly, contemplating life and all it's misgivings.

Two days later Mr. Borscht and I decide it is time to end this experiment and hopefully find an answer to our pitiful first world problems.

To simply reheat the left over bisquits I loosely covered the bisquits in foil where it would reheat in the preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

For the uncooked dough that was stored with a few drops of water, I merely laid out on the baking sheet and baked for 14 minutes in the preheated 350 degree oven.

The reheated bisquits when eaten warm were quite good, they were slightly chewier and ever so slightly dense in the middle opposed to their original flaky and light texture. However, the reheated bisquits only seemed to be good when eaten warn, once they cooled down, as these bisquits do quite quickly, the chewy and ever-so-slightly dense texture turned very dense, stale and loafy.

The bisquits that were stored with a few drops of water baked well and turned golden as it usually does in the oven in it's normal state, they looked a little odd at first as they didn't have the obvious layers as they normally do and looked more like a roll than a bisquit. Careful not to burn myself on the baking pan I took my spatula and tried to take bisquits off the foil-lined baking pan, this was hard to do as they were pretty well stuck on there, I realized maybe I should have greased the foil. After a couple of minutes of fighting with both the foil and the bisquit I was soon able to transfer them to a plate for the real test... taste.

They were wonderful for being dough from a tube that had been stored in the refrigerator for 2 days. They didn't have as many layers as they normally do but they tasted almost just the same, the very bottom of the bisquit was thick crispy which Mr. Borscht seemed to really like. Other than the fact that these bisquits seemed more like bread rolls on the outside, they were quite good.

So, if you've got the same problem we have where you have too many Pillsbury bisquits to eat, storing the dough with a few drops of water in a plastic ziploc bag is the way to go. And there you have it.

Like you, my husband and I were wondering how we can "save" our biscuits because we usually only eat half the can. This saved me from my own experiments, thank you so much plan to try this at the beginning of this week! Thank goodness we don't have to waste food :)

You could always freeze a few sticks of butter and chop them finally put back in freezer with a few cups of flour overnight and then in the morning add a little salt baking soda buttermilk. You can make one really big Biscuit or 10 tiny biscuits. And once you do it a couple times making 2 biscuit and for biscuit pre batches and all you gotta do is add buttermilk to it's pretty easy and a lot cheaper but good luck

You could always freeze a few sticks of butter and chop them finally put back in freezer with a few cups of flour overnight and then in the morning add a little salt baking soda buttermilk. You can make one really big Biscuit or 10 tiny biscuits. And once you do it a couple times making 2 biscuit and for biscuit pre batches and all you gotta do is add buttermilk to it's pretty easy and a lot cheaper but good luck

Another way to do this is to put all of the biscuits in the oven, but remove those that you aren't going to eat immediately when they just start turning a tan-ish color. I like to take them out before that, but whichever works best for you.

Put those biscuits on a cooling rack and let the rest bake to your usual doneness. Once the biscuits have cooled, place them in a plastic bag and freeze. When you want them, take out what you need, let them thaw for a bit (or not. Experiment! :D ) and bake them the rest of the way in your oven or toaster oven or toaster. Whichever works best for you.

I sometimes use mine for quiche crust in ramekins or I cook all of the biscuits and save extra biscuits in a Ziploc bag at room temperature for a couple of days and I haven't died yet though they do become quite dense but recover well from a re-heat; it's just a biscuit, eat it. I may store some uncooked in the fridge or freezer. Ciao

Thanks so MUCH for your post! Your website was the first one I saw and I was so happy to see someone had gone through this before. I have tried the reheat method where I stored the cooked Grands in aluminum foil in the refrigerator (just by experimentation) then reheated them in the oven and they turned out very close to the same texture and consistency as the first time. Actually to me, it was softer which I liked very much but that's because we ate them right away out of the oven. They didn't have a chance to get cool :). Since my partner has complained about making too much food lately, (hence my presence on your blog) I cannot wait to try the uncooked storage method. Thanks again!

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I live in LA & spend way too much time fulfilling my gastro needs. I love to eat and with good company. Always remember the dining experience is not just about eating but the atmosphere, company and conversation too.

One of my goals for 2013 is to eat out less AND to cook at home more by spicing up my kitchen life, this means cooking foods that I don't usually. Oh this will be fun!